Wedding Tips start here...

clairey_em

Hi all,

we got married on 17th Sept 2005, so also been married for just over 6 months.

I always wanted to get married on a budget as I refused to pay the national average of £16k or whatever ridiculous figure it is, and also didn't want to have wedding debts to pay off for the next few years of our lives. (and all before MSE!!)

My parents very kindly paid for the venue, we had already chosen a very reasonable place where we could have the whole shabang. My godmother kindly paid for my dress. I paid for the bridesmaids dresses and they bought their shoes. I made their hair accessories. I bought my jewellery cheap at Debenhams, which my mum then paid me back for, as she'd bought my sister's for her when she got married, which was the same for the flowers. I made pretty much everything else myself, all the stationary, table chart, cake ribbon (lots of sticking on of diamantes) er, place names, party bags (cheap from tesco) for the kids and all favours. I bought my underwear from M&S. The men's suits were hired, but at a very good rate. The only thing we didn't skrimp on was the photography, but in hind sight, we have now a computer full of weddng pictures that people have sent us, so we could have saved on it but, then again, the professional pics are amazing! My uncle did the vid, which my OH will edit.

we didn't need a car, as I stayed the night before and therefore got ready at the venue, then we stayed there on the wedding night (thrown in free by the hotel). We had a week away after the wedding in spain at my mum and dad's place for a cheap chill out week, then had a honey moon of a life time in New York over christmas and new year, which we had courtesy of our wedding list, as people could buy us things like a meal out, or theatre/ museum tickets as a wedding present. we weren't going to have a wedding list as we have lived with each other for a couple of years and didn't feel the need to chuck out our perfectly good stuff to be replaced, but people got upset, particularly relatives as they wanted to buy us something to mark the occasion.

It was a lot of hard work, and all my time was taken up by the wedding, but I loved it, and I rally felt that it all worked on the day. everyone loved my little touches and that made a big difference to me, as it felt more personal.

I suppose in total it cost around £9000, but £6500 was the venue, which included the fees for the registrar, the ceremony room hire, prof DJ, Master of Ceremonies (toast master) honeymoon suite, and they were really fantastic, absolutely nothing went wrong.

clairey_em

oh yeah, and the rings we had made in Goa, so cost a fraction of the price!

welshnoonoo

Ruby76 wrote:

I have booked a childrens entertainer during my wedding breakfast, and letting the kids have their own party in a seperate room. This way their parents can ejoy themselves and the kids wont get bored.

Hopefully everyone is a winner :j

Good Idea! I have been reading about this in a newsletter that I get monthly at mrs2be.com and they had some good ideas. It can be really stressful when the kids start playing up, for the parents too can't it. I wouldn't want to ban kids altogether so I am considering some of the ideas i read.

troll35

I got married 15 years ago. It cost about £5K ish. My parents paid for the reception (100 people) and my wedding dress (which cost £325 and still looks gorgeous) and we were married in church. I hated the standard bridesmaids dresses, but fortunately we found some lovely evening dresses in the sale at Laura Ashley for £30 each that were perfect (and cheaper than hiring bo peep dresses). A friend of my SIL did the flowers, cream roses, irises and lots of forget me nots from the garden. She even made hair pieces to match for the bridesmaids. I thoroughly enjoyed my day, however as my parents paid for the reception there were plenty of people there who I wouldn't have necessarily invited. We honeymooned in Yugoslavia 3 weeks before the war finally broke out. We had kept our honeymoon destination a secret and as the day drew nearer we daredn't tell my mum where we were going because the situation in Yugoslavia at the time was getting worse and the war was inevitable.

If I had to do it again I wouldn't get married in church (I'm an atheist so I felt very hypocritical but the only other choice at the time was the registry office which was horrible and in the middle of the bus station!!) and I would only invite close friends and relatives, so no uncles and aunts I don't get on with.

I've often wondered what people think is a suitable amount to spend on a wedding present. I've usually guesstimated how much whoever is paying, is paying for us to attend and spent a similar figure.

Brightness

Just a thought but how about Vistaprint for invites, place cards, magnets and things? Much cheaper than the books you get at stationers and you can also personalise them.

Rachie_B

emma_b wrote:

if i get a dress off ebay i will wait till after the birth, if i get one from a shop i will have to do it before as they have all said it takes ages to get here and they can alter it anyway afterwards, many do free alterations. im thinking of trying dresses on in the shops and then looking for a similar one on ebay, is that what other brides have done??

yup thats what i did

well i tell a lie :rotfl:

i didnt set foot in a bridal shop:P :rotfl: had enough of that when my sister was planning her wedding

but looked on the net and i mags to see what dresses i liked

then ordered it from ebay.com and saved a packet

my dress (maggie sottero) over here was anything between £750 - £950 :eek: i got it for £249 & another £100 in import tax etc but thats still a good saving

i had 2 dresses :rotfl: another lighter one for the evening and both cost less than £500 ,which is less than a lot of brides pay for ONE dress !!

i wanted to look good of course any bride does but i wasnt prepared to pay stupid money for someting id wear only once

if you arent fussed what make / designer your dress is then you can get BN dresses on ebay for much much cheaper than i did

a friend of mine got hers shipped from hong kong and it cost her £50 !!! and was gorge!!

Rachie_B

clairey em your day sounds just fabulous

jellyhead

it does. my wedding day was great too. i think the money doesn't matter as long as you're happy, mind you i've seen plenty of stressed out miserable brides to be whether spending thousands or hundreds. and plenty of radiantly happy ones too. we bought cheap rings by the way because i'd already lost 2 engagement rings within a year - ooops! my husband's wedding ring was the first to go, it fell off while he was swimming and got lost in the pool plumbing lol!

Rachie_B

oh no ! my hubby has lost his wedding ring too

jellyhead

they called him months later to say they'd fished it out when sorting out the pipes. i haven't lost mine yet but then i haven't worn it for more than a year, i grew out of it while pregnant and haven't been able to get it back on again :rotfl: